Schumpeter came from the southern tip of austria. Got educated in vienna. His early work, he says, put us on the wrong path. The discoveries of scientists and navigators don't lead to innovation by some sort of immaculate conception. They do require ontepeneurs, but that's a kind of a slender contribution. And so that's a shampeters thought.
Edmund Phelps of Columbia University, Nobel Laureate in economics, and author of Mass Flourishing talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in the book. Phelps argues that human flourishing requires challenges, struggles, and success and goes beyond material prosperity. He argues that in recent decades, policy has discouraged innovation and mass flourishing resulting in a slow-down in growth rates. Phelps emphasizes the non-material benefits of economic growth and the importance of small innovations over big inventions as key to that growth.